The presence of jitter, a measure of time-dependent signal fluctuations, affects the integrity and reliability of a communication system, as the bit error rate of the communication system is influenced by the characteristics of the jitter. Characterizing components of the jitter, such as a random time-varying component and a periodic time-varying component, enables designers of the communication system to establish sources of the jitter and predict the bit error rate of the communication system.
One technique for characterizing jitter is disclosed by Li et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,298,315 B1. Li et al. separates and analyzes deterministic and random components of a jitter distribution based on a histogram representing the distribution, by fitting tail regions to the distribution defined by the histogram.
Another technique is taught by Williams et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,263,290 B1. Williams et al. specifies a threshold on a waveform, obtains samples that surround the threshold voltage and interpolates the samples to generate an accurate time tag list. The time tag list indicates positions in time that correspond to the point at which the waveform crosses the threshold to represent statistical properties of time-related parameters such as jitter.